Chapter 2

2 The Tushan Family's Strongest

For Tushan Jiu, flying on a plane is still fairly novel.

Her grandfather was quite tight-fisted; whenever he went out, he always drove the family's broken minivan.

Her grandfather passed away in the first half of this year; although she is already nineteen, she also couldn't be bothered to get a driver's license.

Compared to driving, she feels that taking various forms of transportation to collect debts is more convenient.

After the plane stabilized, she struggled to relax her stiff body.

"Ah—thrilling!"

She thought that if her Shrink-to-an-Inch technique practice succeeded, it would probably feel the same as the sensation when an airplane takes off.

She made an effort to ignore Zhang Xuefeng's probing gaze from behind and to the side, looked out the window at the clouds below, and let out a light sigh.

She had known since childhood that she had a debt that must be collected before she turned twenty-two.

On the day her grandfather's soul left his body, he repeatedly urged her, to the point that her head ached from all his nagging.

Well, last night he came up again to urge her once more.

She hadn't forgotten; she was just too lazy to act, and besides, there were still several years until she turned twenty-two—what was there to rush about?

As the 283rd-generation debt-slashing person, Tushan Jiu's metaphysical talent far surpassed everyone in her family.

In recent decades, debt-slashing persons have become fewer and fewer, and now she is the only one left in this generation.

But she—also wouldn't live long.

As for why?

All of this must be traced back to a hundred years ago.

A hundred years ago was the time when the Tushan Family was at its most prosperous.

Even if other techniques weren't their forte, their divination abilities were incredibly powerful.

In the Mysterious Gate, even if you are an extremely powerful metaphysical master, there will be various demons and monsters you cannot deal with or track down.

Meanwhile, debt-slashing persons can precisely divine their weaknesses and take them down in a single move.

Therefore, many people from the Mysterious Gate would come to them for debt-slashing, seeking a prophecy.

For a while, the number of Mysterious Gate people who owed them payment for debt-slashing grew, and no one dared to provoke the Tushan Family.

But as the saying goes, "a big tree attracts wind"—there will always be someone envious and skeptical.

Yet they lacked the strength to match.

Because the Tushan Family always calculates their weaknesses and defeats them.

So they came up with a vicious method—a curse.

No one knows how they learned the Tushan Family's secret, but whenever a girl is born into the Tushan Family, she is destined to be the strongest—her divination is always 100% accurate, and she is born with a heavenly eye that allows her to communicate with ghosts and gods.

Moreover, even the debt-slashing person's weakest techniques and martial arts, that girl will master them without a teacher.

Thus, even those who envied the Tushan Family, even if they had declined, did not want the debt-slashing clan to thrive alone, so they placed a curse upon the Tushan Family.

The Tushan Family has always had more males than females—but just how few are the females?

That is, one female appears only once in a hundred years.

Unfortunately, Tushan Jiu just happened to be an innocent "caught in the crossfire," becoming the lucky child cursed.

However, the Tushan Family did not sit idle; starting from her great-grandfather's generation, they have been seeking various ways to break her curse.

Fortunately, heaven does not betray those who strive; they found a method.

That is, to find someone bearing great fortune and marry them; under the impact of that great fortune, the curse will naturally collapse.

How about that—doesn't it sound overly melodramatic?

But there's no choice; in metaphysics, the fortune on a person of great fortune is truly the natural nemesis of these evil curses, with no exception.

Of course, such a person of great fortune is not found everywhere.

Though not saying it's as rare as a female born into her Tushan Family, it's still not far off—both are rare treasures seen only once in a hundred years.

Yet such a rare treasure just happened to bump into her grandfather by sheer dumb luck.

Thus, the blade serves as proof, the words as evidence; the prophecy has come true, and now is the day to collect payment.

And this payment is that she must marry that so-called person of great fortune.

At first she resisted, because the worst that could happen was her death—just like her grandfather, she could go on to become a low-level civil servant, and if the man didn't like her, it wouldn't be making things difficult for him.

Of course, if the other party wasn't to her taste, she would also feel uneasy.

But as soon as that thought arose, her eighteen generations of ancestors instantly appeared.

Can you imagine? She was dreaming of flirting with a handsome guy, and in an instant the scene shifted—her great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, seven uncles and eight aunts, arms crossed, surrounded her head, each ghost with a mouth, scolding her until saliva drenched her.

And the general meaning was, the Tushan Family now only has her left; is she trying to end the family line?

Fine, it's the same old story—if the incense line is going to be cut off, you have to keep it going.

Alright, you ghosts are many, so you're right.

Then let's continue—continue!

Thus, after yet another urging from her grandfather, she finally set out.

Her train of thought came to an abrupt halt, because Tushan Jiu felt that the person beside her had changed.

But she also did not turn her head to look.

Because she knew the person who had come over was definitely Zhang Xuefeng.

Zhang Xuefeng took out his phone, opened the memo, and said, "Ahem, little miss, I need to take a statement from you now; please cooperate."

Tushan Jiu didn't mind; cooperating with police work is every citizen's duty, no matter what your job is—first you are a citizen of Huaguo, right? "Alright, go ahead and ask."

Seeing her so cooperative, Zhang Xuefeng was momentarily surprised, but he quickly composed himself and began asking: "Name, age, occupation."

"Tushan Jiu, 19 years old, debt-slashing person."

Even now, Zhang Xuefeng still doesn't know what profession that credit buyer she mentioned actually is.

But he didn't press further, just noted it down in his phone's memo.

Exactly, he really came to take a statement, not out of personal curiosity.

Zhang Xuefeng then asked: "Do you know Lin Fenglan?"

The fugitive trafficker is called Lin Fenglan.

"I don't know her."

"Then how did you know Lin Fenglan's whereabouts?"

"I figured it out."

"Figured it out?"

Tushan Jiu finally turned her head to look at Zhang Xuefeng.

She nodded, then extended her index and middle fingers, making a scissor gesture, and snip-snip 'cut' twice.

Zhang Xuefeng froze for a moment, half-understanding.

What else could he ask?

But her eyes, shining with confidence, made people unconsciously trust her words.

The flight from Yun Shi to Nan Cheng takes three hours.

By high-speed rail, it's two and a half hours slower than by plane.

But Lin Fenglan's high-speed rail departure there was an hour earlier than theirs.

Adding the delay at Yun Shi due to air traffic control, which left the plane waiting outside the runway for over forty minutes, all together, the timing worked out so that when they landed in Nan Cheng, news would already be waiting at the high-speed rail station.

She always forgets to collect debts, so let's collect whatever can be collected right away—her ledger can't hold any more!

This transaction merely provided that person's location.

As for the rest, we'll talk about it later.